It has been long recognized that children, particularly infants, may be amused and mentally stimulated by hanging motif figures, such as paper or plastic cutouts or painted decorations. Typically, such amusement figures are suspended by a wire or string from a support frame designed for releasable attachment to a piece of the infant's furniture, such as a crib or play pen. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,610 to Stubbmann, an arcuate rod frame having spring clips at its extremities is used to support a plurality of amusement figures. The figures are suspended from hangers which frictionally engage the rod for spaced positioning of the figures about the frame. The spring clips at the ends of the rod are used to attach the frame to a baby crib.
As exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 1,436,367 to Sullivan, it is also known to attach a frame for suspending amusement articles to other pieces of infant furniture. The Sullivan patent specifically discloses an inverted U-shaped frame with brackets permanently affixed to its extremities. Screws extend through the brackets for securing the frame to an infant high chair. A device for securing an amusement figure suspension frame to an infant is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,238,661 to Herer et al wherein a curvular mounting base adapted to encompass the front, sides and back portions of an infant is described.
Several prior art devices for supporting suspension frames for infant amusement figures have been designed to use the weight and action of an infant for their operation. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,745 to Harvey et al, for example, a frame is disclosed which may be attached to a flat base. The infant is placed on the flat base with the amusement figures suspended above. The weight of the infant is used to stabilize the base structure. A generally planar frame with a curved end wall which suspends amusement articles above an infant is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,856 to Thomson. In operation, an infant is placed on the Thomson frame so that he/she will kick the curved end wall and vibrate the suspended amusement figures.
Unfortunately, each of the above described amusement figure support structures suffer from numerous shortcomings. One significant shortcoming is the lack of flexibility permitted by these prior art devices in positioning an infant. For example, the device disclosed in the above mentioned Thomson patent is suitable only for infants lying on their backs. Each of the frame structures designed for attachment to a piece of furniture is limited in flexibility by the restraints imposed by the selected furniture piece.
Additionally, the mental stimulus afforded by suspended amusement figures generally diminishes over time as the infant becomes overly accustomed to the particular suspended figures. In an attempt to overcome the tendency of an infant to become bored over time with the same suspended amusement figure, mobile variations of the above discussed amusement figure suspension device have been developed. A typical mobile frame for suspending amusement figures is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,817 to Kraueth wherein figures are suspended from a freely rotating ring frame. The ring frame rotates upon contact and rotates the suspended amusement figures. Other mobile toy suspensions use spring biased motors to rotate the suspended amusement figures. These mobile toys are generally designed for attachment to a baby crib or play pen. Aside from the added stimulation provided by the resulting movement, these mobile toys suffer from the same shortcomings as the prior art discussed above.
There are also several potential hazards which result from the use of cribs or play pens to support suspended amusement figures. First of all, older infants can frequently use the sides of cribs and play pens to assist in standing or climbing. Moreover, the prior art amusement figure suspension systems designed for attachment to cribs and play pens have frequently lacked high structural integrity. Thus, it is often possible for an infant, after standing in a crib or play pen, to grasp a suspended amusement figure and to pull the supporting frame and suspension strings into the crib or play pen. The potential for accidental chocking or strangulation of an infant from use of such toys is particularly pronounced in a crib or bed where the infant generally spends at least several unsupervised hours a day.